Quotes of the day

posted at 8:01 pm on February 24, 2013 by Allahpundit

The automatic budget cuts set to take hold this week were roundly condemned Sunday as governors, lawmakers and administration officials hoped for a deal to stave off the $85 billion reduction in government services.

Suggestions intended to instill a spirit of compromise included bringing all sides to the bargaining table, where they could act like “adults, a presidential summit at Camp David and even a field trip to watch “Lincoln.”…

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called … defense cuts “unconscionable” and urged Obama to call lawmakers to the White House or the presidential retreat of Camp David for a last-minute budget summit.

“I won’t put all the blame all on the president of the United States. But the president leads. The president should be calling us over somewhere — Camp David, the White House, somewhere — and us sitting down and trying to avert these cuts,” McCain said.

***

Head Start and programs for children with parents in the military could also be hurt by the $85 billion in sequester cuts, Duncan said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

“We don’t have any ability with dumb cuts like this to figure out what the right thing to do is,” Duncan said. “It just means a lot more children will not get the kinds of opportunities and services they need.”…

“We are just saying — as you identify the federal cuts and savings — give us flexibility to make the cuts where they will do the least harm to our citizens,” said Gov. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma, a Republican and the vice chairwoman of the association. “Don’t balance the federal budget on the backs of state governments.”

Gov. Jack Markell of Delaware, a Democrat and the chairman of the association, said: “Deficit reduction should not be accomplished simply by shifting costs from the federal government to the states or by imposing unfunded mandates. States should be given increased flexibility to create efficiencies and to achieve results.”…

Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, a Republican, said Congress should be “more strategic” in making cuts.

“There will be [an] impact on national security, there is no doubt. And I think there’s some misnomers. So it’s really only 2 cents on the dollar over the whole federal budget, but they’ve scrunched that down into seven months and highlighted, or at least put most of the burden on the Defense Department. So that is going to have an impact. That’s a 13 percent cut,” Rogers said.

Rogers went on to argue for giving the departments responsible for making the cuts “flexibility” to ensure the cuts are made wisely as opposed to indiscriminately.

“There’s a big difference from a sailor on the Eisenhower out in the Mediterranean and the travel coordinator at the EPA. You can’t treat them the same. And the way this is structured it treats everyone the same. Can’t do that,” Rogers said. “We have intelligence operations that could get slowed down or stopped. That’s a problem.”

***

Obama has not resorted to full finger-shaking, red-faced exhorting. Why not? Here are three reasons in order of significance:

1. Any deal that comes from the White House will not pass muster with House Republicans. So every effort must start and end in Congress. That is an incontrovertible political truth.

2. There are no cage-rattlers at the White House. Rahm Emanuel was a cage-rattler. He was capable of making ripples that could tip dynamics and make the incontrovertible… controvertible. The White House today is much quieter. There are no huge, saber-teeth personalities.

3. The agencies are doing the job for him. From flight delays to FBI furloughs, entities that are more trusted than politicians are giving the lowdown to the media, which is repeating it. The projected misery is what will influence public opinion, which, in turn, might influence Congress.

[I]n meetings with rank-and-file members and around the leadership table early in this Congress, House Republican leaders floated the idea of putting another such bill on the floor. What they found is that members had no appetite to vote on such a bill again, according to one GOP leadership aide.

“The conference feels that we’ve made our point by passing the sequester replacement act two times,” the aide said.

***

“The good news is, the world doesn’t end March 2. The bad news is, the world doesn’t end March 2,” said Emily Holubowich, a Washington health-care lobbyist who leads a coalition of 3,000 nonprofit groups fighting the cuts. “The worst-case scenario for us is the sequester hits and nothing bad really happens. And Republicans say: See, that wasn’t so bad.”…

“It would be a big problem for the White House if the sequester came and went and nobody really noticed anything. Then people will start saying, ‘Well, maybe we can cut spending,” said John H. Makin, a resident scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute who penned a recent Wall Street Journal piece titled “Learning to Love the Sequester.”

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Head Start and programs for children with parents in the military could also be hurt by the $85 billion in sequester cuts, Duncan said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Go to hell.

“Put another way, the sequestration scares are lies, pure and simple. Not just bunk, not just distortions or mis-statements, but lies. And every professional politician – Democrat, Republican, Socialist, Independent – in this town knows it.”

I didn’t watch Fox News Sunday, so don’t know if this was mentioned or not.

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and his wife Ann Romney will sit for an interview with “Fox News Sunday” next week, show host Chris Wallace said. It will be Romneys’ first interview since the end of the 2012 presidential campaign.

MADISON — A former Greenwood High School Spanish teacher has reached a settlement with a local teachers union she claims illegally pulled union dues from her paycheck.

Amy Anaya, who taught at Greenwood during the 2011-12 school year, will receive an undisclosed lump sum payment as a “full and complete settlement” of her Prohibited Practice complaint.

“The parties acknowledge that the purpose of the settlement payment is to resolve all disputed claims asserted by Anaya involving the (Greenwood Education) Association” and the Greenwood School District, the agreement states. In accepting the terms, Anaya releases the union and the district from further obligations or liabilities, and no one in the case admits any wrongdoing.

But the teacher’s legal counsel, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, which took Anaya’s case for free, is claiming victory in the battle against forced unionism.

“Teacher union bosses and school officials ignored state law and U.S. Supreme Court precedent to illegally coerce this teacher into full dues paying union ranks against her will,” Mark Mix, president of National Right to Work said in a news release.

Affording to guest poster, Mara Zebest, at GWP:

The exact amount of the settlement is undisclosed. Hopefully more teachers will follow Amy Anaya’s example. This kind of theft would absolutely land the criminal in jail if it were a conservative implementing this level of deception, but nothing to see here when the Left does it.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAH…. Man are you guys ever going to be red faced and embarrassed when you finally realize that Gualt’s gulch is in California… Why is it in California, well, because when you want to hide something, the best place to hide it is where nobody will ever bother looking for it. And ya know damned well nobody is ever going to look for Gualt’s gulch in California… :P

I didn’t watch Fox News Sunday, so don’t know if this was mentioned or not.

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and his wife Ann Romney will sit for an interview with “Fox News Sunday” next week, show host Chris Wallace said. It will be Romneys’ first interview since the end of the 2012 presidential campaign.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called … defense cuts “unconscionable” and urged Obama to call lawmakers to the White House or the presidential retreat of Camp David for a last-minute budget summit.

“I won’t put all the blame all on the president of the United States. But the president leads. The president should be calling us over somewhere — Camp David, the White House, somewhere — and us sitting down and trying to avert these cuts,” McCain said.

Ain’t getting enough lovin’, John?
This is the problem: Allowing this sack of sh!t to get in front of every camera and Sunday show with that R behind his name and the Dems hand up his arse.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called … defense cuts “unconscionable” and urged Obama to call lawmakers to the White House or the presidential retreat of Camp David for a last-minute budget summit.

“I won’t put all the blame all on the president of the United States. But the president leads. The president should be calling us over somewhere — Camp David, the White House, somewhere — and us sitting down and trying to avert these cuts,” McCain said.

Ain’t getting enough lovin’, John?
This is the problem: Allowing this sack of sh!t to get in front of every camera and Sunday show with that R behind his name and the Dems hand up his arse.

AllahsNippleHair on February 24, 2013 at 11:46 PM

McVain is terrified that Americans will find out how much you can cut the federal budget without anything happening.

Good evening Dire… So, soundboard said that he could hook us up with a world class recording studio… Just as soon as you and Predator crack open those painfully heavy and over cash stuffed wallets of yours… ;p

We’ve been through secret negotiations and “summits” and the like. We’re looking at the work product from “government by crisis.”

And good old Johnny Mac is out there saying we should do it again – - – because, you know, it’s worked SO WELL thus far.

Everyone knows the definition of insanity – - – doing the same old thing and expecting a different result.

Enough of all that. We’re broke. We don’t have the money these bozos insist upon spending every year. We’re spending our country into a crap hole & our so-called “leadership” has no desire to or intention of doing a thing about it.

Enough. Let the Sequester hit. Try to solve the defense issues – if, indeed, there really are any – via the normal legislative process. Take positions; argue it out.

And for Goodness Sakes, Republicans – try to take the lead on spending. Keep repeating “that’s all well and good, but we don’t have the money. We have to start making choices – we can’t say ‘yes’ to everything.”